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Draft budget for next EU Framework Programme is good news

The budget for the upcoming framework programme (FP10) is set to be doubled compared to the current Horizon Europe programme. This is clear from the European Commission’s proposal for the financial framework for 2028–2034 – and negotiations are about to start. In the draft budget, EUR 450 billion has been earmarked for a new European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), of which EUR 175 billion has been earmarked for the 10th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, FP10 (Horizon Europe), compared to EUR 95.5 billion for the current Horizon Europe programme.

FP10 (Horizon Europe)
The European Commission has presented a proposal for an autonomous framework programme structured around four pillars:

Excellent Science – key components are the European Research Council (ERC), Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) and the EU’s own research centre, the Joint Research Centre.  The total budget proposal is EUR 44.1 billion, with most of the funding expected to be allocated to the ERC; the MSCA budget is not expected to increase significantly compared to the current Horizon Europe budget.

Competitiveness and Society – the second pillar continues research and innovation cooperation projects with a proposed total budget of EUR 75.9 billion.

The pillar is structured into two parts:

(1) Competitiveness – which is divided into the four policy windows (see below) of the European Competitiveness Fund and is expected to be coordinated under the ECF. Competitiveness is set to get most of the budget, around EUR 68 billion.

(2) Society – which focuses on global challenges, e.g. migration, disinformation, democracy societal change. In addition, there will be funding for the five existing EU Missions (Horizon Europe 2021–2027) up to and including 2030 as well as research and innovation in the New European Bauhaus Facility.

Innovation – the third pillar will support the development of new products, services and business models. The third pillar has a total budget of EUR 38.8 billion, of which around EUR 34 billion is intended for the European Innovation Council (EIC). The EIC’s focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises as well as startups with breakthrough innovation potential. In addition, a dedicated approach is introduced to support startups in defence and dual-use technology. Under the proposal, the EIC will continue to fund projects based on bottom-up and challenge-based calls through the Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator instruments. 

The third pillar continues furthermore to support innovation ecosystems, including activities focused on integrating education, research and innovation and business development.

European Research Area (ERA) – is the fourth pillar and consists of three key components designed to support the development of the European Research Area, including research and technology infrastructures and capacity building in countries with low innovation capacity (‘widening’). The programme for research infrastructures is extended to include so-called ‘technology infrastructures’ targeted at companies. The infrastructure programme is expected to have a budget of around EUR 10 billion. Pillar 4 has a total budget of EUR 16.3 billion, of which EUR 5.4 billion is earmarked for capacity building and widening actions.

European Competitiveness Fund (ECF)
The new fund brings together the EU’s capacities for improving the EU’s competitiveness, including strengthening investments in technologies and sectors deemed critical for the EU. The ECF brings together, e.g., the Digital Europe Programme, EU4Health, LIFE, the Innovation Fund, the European Defence Fund and InvestEU.

The European Competitiveness Fund is structured around four so-called ‘policy windows’:

  1. Clean Transition and Industrial Decarbonisation
  2. Digital Leadership
  3. Health, Biotech, Agriculture and Bioeconomy
  4. Resilience and Security, Defence industry and Space.

The European Competitiveness Fund is expected to be implemented through annual or multi-annual work programmes within the four areas. The plan is for the work programmes to be prepared with input from, among others, stakeholders, including researchers as well as business and industry. According to the draft, the ECF and the FP10 programme will be closely aligned, not least when it comes to the part of FP10 that deals with strengthening competitiveness – the four ‘policy windows’.

Next steps
Based on the European Commission’s proposal, the negotiation phase is now starting, with the member states (represented by the Council) and the European Parliament having to arrive at an agreement, and is officially to be concluded by the end of​2026. This timeline will give the European Commission one year (2027) to prepare the launch of the ​the new programmes under the next Multiannual Financial Framework starting on 1 January 2028.

Find out more

For a quick overview of the proposed programme, see factsheet here. To access the legal document for the FP10 programme, see here.

The European Commission’s proposals contain many uncertainties and leave many aspects unresolved. Together with its colleagues in the CDEU, the Research Support Office is closely monitoring the progress of the negotiations, for example through dialogue with stakeholders in Brussels, the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science and through the work of the university network The Guild. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact the strategy team under the Research Support Office at AU. Find contact info here.

 

Revised 27.10.2025